Ernst Dieffenbach
![Allegory to Ernst Dieffenbach reaching the summit of Mount Egmont (New Zealand)](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/0e/Ernst_Dieffenbach.jpg)
Dieffenbach was born in Giessen. He gained a degree at the university of Giessen and then, accused by authorities in the Grand Duchy of Hesse of being subversive, he fled, first to Zurich, where he received a degree in medicine before being expelled in 1836 for politics and duelling; in 1837 he arrived in London, where he eked out a living teaching German, but gained a reputation by his contributions to medical and scientific journals and made friendships with geologists Charles Lyell and Richard Owen among others. Recommendations put him aboard the ''Tory'' bound for New Zealand, travelling in the capacity of surgeon, surveyor and naturalist.
During the 1840s he was a correspondent of Charles Darwin, whose ''Journal of Researches'' Dieffenbach translated into German and published, with Darwin's notes and corrections, as ''Naturwissenschaftliche Reisen'' (Brunswick, 1853). Darwin knew Dieffenbach's paper on the Chatham Islands, contributed to the journal of the Royal Geographical Society, and he particularly noted Dieffenbach's commentary on the differences between the species of birds there and in New Zealand. Dieffenbach also translated the ''Geological Manual'' of Henry De la Beche. Partly as a result of these efforts, in 1850 he was named adjunct professor of geology at Giessen, a post he held until his death there.
The extinct Dieffenbach's rail (''Gallirallus dieffenbachii'') a flightless rail formerly endemic to the Chatham Islands, was named after him. (The plant genus ''Dieffenbachia'' was named after the head gardener of the Botanical Gardens in Vienna, Joseph Dieffenbach (1796–1863).) Provided by Wikipedia
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Published: 1843;, 1843
Superior document: Travels in New Zealand : with contributions to the geography, geology, botany, and natural history of that country Vol. II
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Published: 1843;, 1843
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Published: 1843;, 1843
Superior document: Travels in New Zealand : with contributions to the geography, geology, botany, and natural history of that country Vol. I